Dozens of NYCHA tenants beg judge to help fix troubled agency as mom of murdered teen says it refuses to transfer her to new place

Dionne Boyd holds a photo of her son Clayton Hemmingway, who was shot and killed in November of 2017. NYPD was unable to identify her son's killers due to non-functioning security cameras. (Sam Costanza for New York Daily News)

One by one they came forward in the high-ceiling courtroom, public housing tenants pleading with Manhattan Federal Judge William Pauley for help to finally fix the long-troubled agency known as NYCHA.

Then came Dionne Boyd, whose 16-year-old son, Clayton Hemingway, was shot down outside his home in Brooklyn’s Linden Houses. She told the judge that police couldn’t identify her son’s murderers because NYCHA security cameras at the scene didn’t function.

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Then she told him NYCHA had refused her request for a transfer away from the development that each day reminds her of her boy and the night of Nov. 4 when he was murdered.

"My son was 16 years old and those boys killed my son," she testified, breaking down into sobs. "He was in the 11th grade and he was doing very well. I have the report card to prove it," she said, holding up school records and photos of a smiling young man just beginning his life.

After lunch the judge — clearly moved by Boyd’s story — railed against NYCHA and ordered them to get her out of there.

"Whether I have the right to order it or not, I'm ordering it," he said. "As a matter of basic human decency NYCHA should find that woman an apartment somewhere else." He added, “To go back to the same hallway where she lost her son — there’s no excuse for that.”

All told, more than 50 witnesses, mostly tenants, testified in an unprecedented hearing Wednesday held by the judge to hear what they think of a proposed consent decree that would include the appointment of a federal monitor to oversee the troubled authority.

The agreement between Mayor de Blasio, NYCHA and Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman reached in June still needs Pauley’s approval. In July Pauley sought written comments from tenants and housing advocates. At Wednesday’s hearing he started by noting he’d received more than 700.

“The submissions lay bare the failures by all levels of government — the state, the city, the federal government and NYCHA — to provide safe, sanitary and decent housing,” he said. “Your voices need to be heard.”

For three and a half hours they were. Tenants recounted the usual litany of horrors wrought by NYCHA’s failures to address the deteriorating conditions in thousands of its 176,000 apartments: flaking lead paint, creeping toxic mold, elevators that don’t function, mice and roaches scurrying across kitchen floors.

Several tenants let the judge know that for years they felt nobody listened to them, that NYCHA managers treated them like children or worse. Darlene Peterson, resident of the Sotomayor Houses in the South Bronx, said, “I thank you for listening to us but I hope something gets done. Thanks for listening to this nobody.”

Most of those who spoke testified that they support the consent decree as long as it includes significant tenant participation.

“I want to be able to appeal to someone who will make (NYCHA) do the right thing,” said Delores Harley, longtime resident of Morris Houses in the Bronx.

Several elected officials also weighed in, including Public Advocate Letitia James, Democratic candidate for state Attorney General, and Assemblyman Michael Blake, D-Bronx. Councilmember Alicka Ampry-Samuel, chair of the council’s public housing committee, pressed for strong tenant involvement as the consent decree moves forward.

“For the first time NYCHA residents are being heard,” said Ampry-Samuel, D-Brooklyn. “If they’re not at the table, there will continue to be a lack of transparency and accountability.”

Tenant Dionne Boyd demanded accountability for the security cameras that she said were useless when police tried tracking down her son’s killers. She said an NYPD detective from the 75th Precinct told her “if the cameras were working, we could catch them.”

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NYCHA officials said later they were looking into what happened with the cameras and would act on her transfer request.

“We were heartbroken to hear Ms. Boyd’s testimony in court today and regret the additional pain caused by the delay in her transfer. We will be contacting her immediately to help expedite,” said NYCHA spokeswoman Jasmine Blake.

Whether Pauley ultimately approves the agreement remains to be seen. At one point, he noted his “trepidation” about the deal and even broached the idea of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) placing NYCHA into federal receivership.

He also questioned why three months after reaching an agreement, NYCHA is still not living up to it. The authority still isn’t complying with lead paint inspection requirements, for example, and last month Interim NYCHA Chairman Stanley Brezenoff appointed a longtime NYCHA patronage hire as a new “compliance officer” without consulting with prosecutors as required by the deal.